Fire Emblem Fates: Rocky beginnings

A couple of hours into FEF, and I'm hooked for good—confirming in the process that I can indeed enjoy SRPGs just as much as any other RPG subgenre. I'm deeply relieved, all the more so as I own a considerable number of SRPGs that I yet have to play. One may call me air-headed for having bought so many games without even knowing if I could enjoy the genre they belong to in the first place, but you know how I am—collection is me passion! But I digress. Let's go back to my young FEF run, which happens to take place on the Hoshido side—i.e. Birthright—and to follow the lenient setting combination of Casual mode and Normal difficulty. Hey, I am an SRPG and Fire Emblem beginner, after all.

I may be totally captivated by FEF right now, but that love didn't bloom immediately. Far from enthralling me, the very early stages of the game left me cold, annoyed and ultimately deeply unsatisfied. I was bothered by a multitude of details that spoilt my pleasure, and here are those joykillers in their unholy glory:

—Much to my dismay, the story comes across as quite asinine. The overall premise is both silly and ludicrous, and main character Corrin accepts the cataclysmic change in his life and takes his new situation in stride a bit too fast and willingly for my taste. Shouldn't he feel at least a bit conflicted about the whole thing? Shouldn't he have legitimate doubts about the truth of the matter? And what's with the cliché of the oppressive kingdom ruled by a crazy tyrant living in an cold stone castle devoid of furniture vs. the oppressed kingdom that favours diversity and is ruled by a kind royal family all decked up in silk? I honestly expected more from a series that's always been hailed as deeper and more mature than most of its peers. Alas, the narrative content I've seen so far is really no different from your average J-RPG story—there's even a reference to Corrin's supposed amnesia, for crying it out loud!—and as a result, FEF's narrative left me thoroughly unimpressed.

—The amount of moe injected in the game really disturbs me. I've always envisioned Fire Emblem as a venerable, serious and austere SRPG series that relied more on gameplay quality than on flashy looks; and somehow, the presence of moe doesn't quite square with that solemn picture. I wanted a mature-looking Corrin, yet the character creation interface is so soaked with kawaisa that I really struggled to create a character that didn't look like a 15-years-old cosplayer in full convention mode. (And I still feel like I failed for the most part.) As for the "private" conversations taking place in Corrin's abode, they are absolutely cringeworthy. To see your teammates utter lame and cheesy sentences with a coy, please-be-gentle expression is deeply embarrassing, and I'm immensely grateful that Nintendo removed the Petting minigame for the Western release, because I don't think I could have stomached it. These people are my fellow soldiers, damnit, not cute and fluffy pokemons begging to be stroked!

—The battle animations are painfully long and so frequent that they totally disrupt the flow of the gameplay. Never before in any game have I been confronted to battle animations so shamelessly intrusive; I'm pretty sure that if I were to count the amount of time devoted respectively to gameplay and to battle animations in any given battle, the latter would win by many a minute. Combine these ubiquitous battle animations with the omnipresent story-related cutscenes and you're left with the feeling of playing an interactive movie that requires player input solely to trigger cutscenes.

—The menus are ridiculously confusing and sorely lack ergonomy. Actions as simple as changing a character's equipment or browsing the available selection in shops are much more complicated than they should be, and the amount of character data displayed on the lower screen is so abundant that it nearly comes across as a parody. What's the "rating" of a character supposed to refer to, for instance? Heck, this is the one game that would absolutely require an detailed, paper-based instruction manual to refer to at all times.

All these hurdles made the game such an absolute pain to play that I seriously considered giving up after a couple of battles. Fortunately, my messy young run was salvaged by the discovery of the Options menu and the fantastic possibilities it harboured. I cranked up the game speed to Fast and totally shut off the combat animations, and a totally different game appeared before my grateful eyes: a brisk, fast-paced, no-frills game with deliciously retro low-fi looks. Then I discovered the possibility of grinding senselessly through subsidiary battles, and there was no turning back. (I unfortunately couldn't alleviate the moe-soaked conversations and the complicated menus, but I'm getting used to the latter and looking elsewhere during the former.)

I've been playing for roughly seven hours now and I'm loving FEF more by the hour. I'm pleasantly surprised by how portable-friendly the game is: it's incredibly easy to play it in short bursts thanks to the Battle Save feature, which makes it the perfect game for commuting. Of course, it also accommodates long playing sessions just as well, and my own sessions often stretch far beyond their planned boundaries—as a matter of fact, I was so engrossed by the game once that I nearly arrived late at work. I can sense a glorious playthrough ahead, and FEF will probably end up being my main Summer 2016 game. It's not as light-hearted as my usual summer picks, granted; but after the massive Pokemon rampage of these last weeks, a change of tone is most welcome. To a Fire Emblem summer! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!